General Strain Theory’s Effect on Personality Traits and Delinquent Behavior
Caroline King
Kennesaw State University
Overview
Sociologist Robert Agnew introduced the General Strain Theory (GST) in 1992, argues that strain is the leading factor that causes someone to be delinquent or criminally motived. He categorizes three major types of strain that produces delinquency: the failure to achieve positively valued goals, removal of positively valued stimuli, and the introduction of negatively valued stimuli (Agnew et al., 2002). These different forms of strain greatly increase the chances for an individual to experience negative emotions such as anger, depression, and frustration. When anger is the result of strain, Agnew …show more content…
(2002) study, which reveled that, an individual who experiences high negative emotionality and low constraint when strained is more likely to respond with delinquency and criminal motivations. Their empirical research does a good job of explaining the effect strain has on delinquency. I found it interesting that the authors chose to include the reasoning for the lack of delinquency in adulthood because I began to question why some adults who were capable of coping with strain as a juvenile choose to become delinquent and participate in criminal behavior later on into adulthood? Shouldn’t they be able to desist from delinquency and crime if they did not show high negative emotionality and low constraint as a juvenile? Agnew at al. (2002) suggested the reasoning behind this was because many adults have children and choose to cope on behalf of them. They also pointed out how adults have greater coping skills and fewer opportunities for delinquent behavior than juvenile’s do (Agnew et al., 2002). Therefore, the few adults who do chose to cope with strain in a delinquent manner are more than likely have experienced the removal of a positive stimuli, such as a personal relationship or their dream job and are pressured to fill that …show more content…
Agnew and the other authors did a great job of providing readers with new information that also showed accurate results unlike prior research that conducted mixed results. In addition, this study encourages researchers to further explore the relationships between negative emotionality and low constraint and how their impacts may be likely determined by the level of strain. By doing so can strengthen the correlation found between strain and personality traits as well as further support Agnew et al. (2002) empirical
Caroline King
Kennesaw State University
Overview
Sociologist Robert Agnew introduced the General Strain Theory (GST) in 1992, argues that strain is the leading factor that causes someone to be delinquent or criminally motived. He categorizes three major types of strain that produces delinquency: the failure to achieve positively valued goals, removal of positively valued stimuli, and the introduction of negatively valued stimuli (Agnew et al., 2002). These different forms of strain greatly increase the chances for an individual to experience negative emotions such as anger, depression, and frustration. When anger is the result of strain, Agnew …show more content…
(2002) study, which reveled that, an individual who experiences high negative emotionality and low constraint when strained is more likely to respond with delinquency and criminal motivations. Their empirical research does a good job of explaining the effect strain has on delinquency. I found it interesting that the authors chose to include the reasoning for the lack of delinquency in adulthood because I began to question why some adults who were capable of coping with strain as a juvenile choose to become delinquent and participate in criminal behavior later on into adulthood? Shouldn’t they be able to desist from delinquency and crime if they did not show high negative emotionality and low constraint as a juvenile? Agnew at al. (2002) suggested the reasoning behind this was because many adults have children and choose to cope on behalf of them. They also pointed out how adults have greater coping skills and fewer opportunities for delinquent behavior than juvenile’s do (Agnew et al., 2002). Therefore, the few adults who do chose to cope with strain in a delinquent manner are more than likely have experienced the removal of a positive stimuli, such as a personal relationship or their dream job and are pressured to fill that …show more content…
Agnew and the other authors did a great job of providing readers with new information that also showed accurate results unlike prior research that conducted mixed results. In addition, this study encourages researchers to further explore the relationships between negative emotionality and low constraint and how their impacts may be likely determined by the level of strain. By doing so can strengthen the correlation found between strain and personality traits as well as further support Agnew et al. (2002) empirical